Catalyst
by Alidiabin
Summary: An animal death is the catalyst for a change in Abby and McGee's realtionship.


**Title: **Catalyst**  
Fandom: **NCIS**  
Author: **Alidiabin**  
Words: **1,738**  
Disclaimer: **I own nothing**  
Warnings/ Spoilers: ** nothing much … animal death. **  
Parings:** McGee/Abby hints of Tony/Ziva  
**Summary: **Death is a catalyst for a change in Abby and McGee's relationship.

**Catalyst**

Jethro the dog looked up as McGee opened the door and let himself in, the dog let out a groan and put his head on the ground.  
"Are you tired, boy?" McGee asked. The dog did not move. McGee checked the dogs bowl, the food was untouched. "Not hungry either" the dog did not respond. A tinge of worry crossed McGee's mind, his inner Abby voice went crazy 'there's something wrong Timmy' it cried. McGee booted up his computer and typed what was wrong with Jethro into google. He got about thousand diagnoses. He decided to give the vets a call.

McGee stroked Jethro's brown fur as the vet took bloods and did other tests. The vet walked in less than an hour later with files and a sad look. McGee did not remember the exact words uttered, but all he was told was that Jethro was dying and it would be more humane to end Jethro's life right then and there.  
"I need to call some people" McGee uttered. The vet nodded.

The team filed in to the veterinary exam room. Gibbs and Ducky stood in the back, Ziva and Tony stood very close to each other on one side and Jimmy and Breena stood on the other side. Abby walked in, already covered in tears and with running mascara.  
"Are they sure?" Abby asked. McGee nodded. Abby clung to Jethro; Tony unlocked his hands from Ziva's embrace and pulled Abby off of him.  
"But" Abby said slowly. She looked at Gibbs and held out her arms asking for a hug. Gibbs obliged and hugged her. As the doctor walked in with the needle Abby turned to McGee for comfort he kissed her forehead.

They stood around. Apologizes and condolences were uttered. Abby and McGee were hugged. Then they all disappeared. Ducky no doubt to his house and a copy of a good book, Gibbs to his basement, Jimmy and Breena to whosever house was closer and Ziva and Tony, well McGee had no idea where they were going but he assumed it would be together.

Abby clung to him as if he was literally holding her up. She let out tears and sobs. She buried her pale face in his shirt. She moistened his shirt.

"Let's go home" he finally uttered after standing in the cold DC air for too long. Abby looked up, and nodded.

He opened the door of his apartment; Abby stands almost too close to him. McGee looked around the small apartment and realised he had not cleaned it in quite a while.  
"This place never changes" Abby uttered as she looked around. She noticed one of Jethro's squeaky toys. The dam broke and more tears fell from Abby's eyes. McGee moved toward her and opened his arms. He wiped the tears falling down her face and she pretended not to notice the tears in his eyes. No words are uttered because simply no words are needed.

Grief intoxicates them. She looked up, her eyes asking for something they have done many times before. She licked her lips (the black lipstick had long faded from her pink succulent lips). She leaned forward, making the first move. He inhaled her scent. She felt his breath on her face. He kissed her, even though he knew it was probably a bad idea. Abby's hands fiddled with his belt buckle as he led her down the hall to his bedroom.

The sun was streaming in when McGee woke up. He leaned over to the other side of his bed, and felt an empty but warm bed. He wondered what had happened, had his strange grief induced sex been a dream. He looked up and saw Abby getting dressed. She pulled on her boots.  
"So you're goanna leave" McGee uttered coldly as Abby turned to look at him. "Like always. Like you always do" Abby despite her affectionate ways seemed to have problems being in a committed relationship or even doing anything that wasn't on her terms. Abby stood and watched for a second as he realised what was happening. Then she walked off without a word.

So McGee like a depressed Romeo fell deep into his hole of despair and self pity. He sat on his bed, wondering what should be his drug of choice to get over his latest failed attempt at romance. Alcohol seemed like an obvious but rather cliché choice but McGee's best bet.

The doorbell stopped him before he put a bottle to his lips. Ziva and Tony let themselves into McGee's apartment their fingers intertwined and Ziva holding a casserole dish with foil on top.  
"What's that?" McGee asked as he touched with caution.  
"We cooked" Ziva uttered. "I am Jewish, he is Italian when times get hard we eat"  
"Don't worry McDepressed it's not that awful healthy crap her and Abby are eating" Tony uttered. McGee did not tell Tony he liked the healthy food too. Ziva smacked him.

Tony and Ziva chatted almost mindlessly for about half an hour. McGee did not listen he just stared at their food offering, nor did he care when Ziva begun cleaning up his apartment.  
"It's like (500) Days of Summer" Tony said. McGee's ears perked up, remembering the movie he watched with Abby a few months previous.  
"What if I'm Tom and Abby's Summer" McGee blurted out. Ziva and Tony were silenced. McGee realised he had verbalised his thought. Tony looked at McGee then looked at Ziva. Tony and Ziva then had one of their eye conversations. Tony awkwardly stood in front of Ziva yeaning to give her a goodbye kiss, but still embarrassed, all though Vance, Gibbs and everyone else knew that Ziva and Tony were dating (even if they pretended they did not), the pair of them still did not do public displays of affection. McGee turned around.

He nor his friends had not realised there was a mirror in the lounge, so McGee watched what he never wanted to. He watched as they kissed. McGee expected fireworks and for them to all but screw each other in his kitchen. Instead McGee watched as they kissed each other softly and romantically. Words in a couple of languages were uttered.  
"And get some milk" Ziva called as Tony walked toward McGee's door. Tony nodded, McGee smirked at their domestication. He also envied it, he wanted such a thing with Abby.

Ziva busied herself and started cleaning up McGee's home. Day old plates were loaded into the dishwasher. McGee in all honesty, preferred the Israeli feminist cleaned his lounge than her guns. McGee looked up to find tea in his face.  
"Is this an invitation to talk" he uttered as Ziva sat down drinking her own tea.  
"Interpret it how you wish McGee" Ziva replied quietly.  
"Thanks for the tea" McGee said as he drunk it. Ziva got up.  
"Even when you are going through an emotional crisis almost worthy for a Jodi Picoult novel you still have manners" Ziva paused. "One day you will make someone very happy" Ziva said in the same tone Sarah used.

Finding Abby on a Saturday morning was a fairly simple task, he knocked on the door of her basement apartment. He stepped inside and looked at the new posters on the slate coloured walls.  
"Hey Abs, remind me I've got to get milk" Tony said as the goth looked him up and down with a sad look on her face.  
"What Timmy tell you?" Abby asked forsaking all small talk as they drifted back to the sofa.  
"He said that he's Tom and you're Summer" Tony uttered, a look of recognition crossed Abby's face as she realised what the movie reference met.  
"I left him in his own bed" Abby said as she squeezed Bert and the soft toy farted. "Now he hates me"  
"Actually McRomeo worships the ground your platform boots walk on" Tony said as he rested his arm on the back of Abby's Edwardian style sofa. "Since the day he heard your voice" Tony said remembering the case at Norfolk seven years ago.  
"Really" Abby said as a smile lit up her face.  
"Really Abs" Tony said. "The boy loves you" Abby's smile disappeared.  
"But Timmy wants to live the cliché, he wants the perfect wife, and the two kids with the picket fence" Abby uttered, Tony looked at Abby he was pretty sure McGee wanted Abby not any of the cliché Abby had described. "I don't want that, I can't give him that, I won't hurt him by getting involved with him"  
"Just try" Tony said. "Talk to him" Tony said as he got up and headed to the door.  
"You have to get milk" Abby said as Bert let out a fart.

McGee did not know how or when he fell asleep. He woke up in his bed, a note with Ziva's messy scrawl beside his bed, McGee read it and was informed that Ziva had left him some of the food she and Tony had brought and that his apartment was now clean. His phone vibrated, making a hideous noise on the wooden table. McGee groaned as he heard it. He picked it up and read the text. It was from Abby.

_Come over 2 my apartment we need 2 talk it's really important _

McGee read the text twice and let a smile cross his face. Talking was a good sign he mused and hoped. He got up and dressed in the first clothes he found in de le casa McGee and drove to Abby's house like Ziva and Gibbs combined.

He stood at the front door of Abby's basement apartment; Abby was looking out the window, like the child of divorced parents on visiting day. She unlocked the door, he walked in, he noticed she was only dressed in one of his shirts and socks with skulls on them.  
"I want to stay in my apartment, yours reminds me of Jethro. If we ever move in together it will be here or somewhere new. I definitely don't want to get married. I don't think I'll have kids, it just wouldn't be fair too have to parents so busy with their jobs and I don't want to give up caffeine. But I love you" Abby said rather fast. "I really really really love you"  
"I love you too" McGee said. Abby stepped forward and met him, they kissed.

**A/N**: My first attempt at McAbby, so be kind. Reviews.


End file.
